If you often spend the night tossing and turning, unable to fall (or stay) asleep, you’re certainly not alone. Sleep disorders such as insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and others affect up to 70 million Americans every year, and as much as 40% of the population isn’t getting the recommended seven hours of sleep each night.
While a single restless night isn’t cause for concern, a chronic lack of sleep can impact both the mind and body, robbing us of the many health benefits that come from a full night’s rest.
Even though we know the importance of sleep and the consequences of being chronically tired, it can be difficult to put our work and worries aside and settle into a peaceful slumber. If you’re having a difficult time quieting your mind and falling asleep, let these restful quotes help send you off to dreamland.
Don’t fight with your pillow, but lay down your head, and kick every worriment out of the bed.Edmund Vance Cooke
I breathe slowly and deeply. I make my eyes still under my eyelids, I make my mind still, and soon, sleep, seeing a perfect reproduction of himself, comes to be united with his facsimile.Audrey Niffenegger
The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.E. Joseph Cossman
There is a time for long tales, but there is also a time for sleep.Homer
I love the silent hour of night, / For blissful dreams may then arise, / Revealing to my charmed sight / What may not bless my waking eyes.Anne Brontë
Having peace, happiness, and healthiness is my definition of beauty. And you can't have any of that without sleep.Beyoncé
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright / Dreaming in the joys of the nightWilliam Blake
Put your thoughts to sleep, do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.Rumi
Sleep is not a dead space, but a doorway to a different kind of consciousness — one that is reflective and restorative, full of tangential thought and unexpected insights.Katherine May
Don’t you simply love going to bed. To curl up warmly in a nice warm bed, in the lovely darkness, that is so restful and then gradually drift away into sleep…C.S. Lewis
The way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is getting enough sleep.Arianna Huffington
Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.Robert Heinlein
It was the time when sleep first comes to weary mortals, creeping over us, the sweetest gift of gods.Virgil
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.William Shakespeare
There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.Mindy Kaling
Featured image credit: Chiociolla/ Shutterstock